“Freedom of expression (...) applies not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population. This is what pluralism, tolerance and open-mindedness are all about, without which there can be no “democratic society”.
European Court of Human Rights, Handyside v. the United Kingdom, 1976.
Freedom of expression and of the press, but also the freedom of artists to create and distribute their work, are regularly attacked by governments, laws and prosecutors, as well as by extreme right-wing movements that do not hesitate to attack artists.
Demonstrators arrested for a simple banner that displeases the authorities or the police, prosecutors misinterpreting certain religious messages as “terrorist”, public authorities cracking down on messages on social networks that attack the authorities or institutions: freedom of expression is abused today and the firm is committed to defending it.
Examples of cases handled :
- Dismissal by an Appeal Court of a man accused of placing a poster considered by the police and the prosecutor to be a symbol of the Islamic State organization, when in reality it was simply a Muslim religious symbol ;
- Relaxation by a Court of Appeal of a man who, in the great tradition of French political humor, had virulently criticized members of the presidential majority and was prosecuted at the behest of the Minister of the Interior;
- Defense of a theater director and his company, victims of a wave of racist and anti-Semitic cyberbullying;
- Withdrawal from police custody and dismissal of charges against a man accused of advocating terrorism who had merely mentioned a “bomb” on the Paris metro.